Media Sharing: January 19 â€“ 25th

January 10th, 2009

Introduction
Oh no! Help! Our users are no longer coming into the library to access our expertise and our collections. What are we gonna do? How do we know that our users will be able to find and access the information they need?

Ah ha! We are going to take our skills to our users in their workplaces. So how do we do that, you ask? We will use media sharing to “show” and “tell” our users how to find and access what they need.

For years we have used Instant Messaging (IM) to provide synchronous interaction with our users. IM allows us to easily send text and URLs to resources; but IM features vary greatly and can be limited when you need to share a screen capture or show users a video of where to click on the screen. IM, coupled with media sharing, can greatly increase your ability to convey step by step instructions to users in a quick and efficient manner.

So let’s start with the basics. According to Wikipedia, media sharing is “the interactive process of sending via email, instant message, text message, posting or linking to media on a website or blog and other methods of sharing media to a targeted audience.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_sharing. Wikipedia also says that a screencast is “a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screencasting. Some examples of media sharing include Flickr (photo sharing), YouTube (video sharing), Del.ici.ous (bookmark sharing), Digg (news sharing).

Screencasting
While verbally explaining how to do a task can be effective, there are tools available that will allow librarians to create screen captures or screencasts (a video of oneâ€™s movements on screen) which can then be sent to users via IM or e-mail.

One screen-capturing tool is Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/).Â Jing is a free (at the moment) tool from TechSmith; the developer of the commercial screencasting software suite Camtasia.Â There are two required components to use Jing: a locally installed application and Web space to store screen captures and screencasts.Â The application uses a minimal amount of memory and runs continuously once it is started.Â Jing can be used when it is needed to capture an entire window or just a section of a window.Â Once the selection has been made, there is an option to create an image or a video of the screen area.Â Jing seamlessly uploads the capture to free Web space with its partner service, Screencast.com.Â Jing screenshots are also capable of being added to Flickr accounts (http://www.flickr.com).Â For screen captures, the entire process takes just a few seconds, and a URL is automatically generated so that one can immediately paste it into an e-mail or IM message.

In addition to taking screen captures, Jing is also capable of creating screencasts.Â In general, screencasts will take longer generate a URL; depending on the amount of video captured.Â The screencasts are viewable from the Web space or downloadable in Flash file format (swf).Â Using a tool like Jing can help a hospital librarian use â€œshow and tellâ€ to answer questions about electronic resources.

So you might be thinking why do we need this tool?Â Screencasting allows:

Discovery Exercise 1 â€“ Image Capture
You would like to highlight elements from a PubMed search and share it with a patron. In this exercise you will use Jing to do an Image Capture and utilize the Arrow, Text, and Highlight tool. See http://screencast.com/t/S7iXCNwFLL for an example.

Go to PubMed and search for Otitis Media

Using the Jing crosshairs select the portion of the Webpage containing your search

Use the Arrow, Text, Frame, and Highlight tool to provide notes on the search page.

Share your image capture by clicking on the Send to Screencast.com button. Note: if this is your first time using Jing you will need to setup a Screencast.com account.

Discovery Exercise 2 â€“ Video Capture
A patron needs help applying limits to a PubMed search. In this exercise you will use Jing to do a Video Capture. A microphone is preferable, but not required. Guide the patron by performing the PubMed search and applying limits. See http://screencast.com/t/evHxCdrfnt for an example.

Go to PubMed

Using the Jing crosshairs select the main body of the PubMed page.

Select Video capture

Wait for the countdown to complete and then begin your video capture. If you have a mic, narrate your actions.

In PubMed perform a search. For example Neoplasm Recurrence

Click on the limits tab and select some limits

Stop the video capture

Preview your video capture

Share your video capture by clicking on the Send to Screencast.com button.

Discovery Exercise 3 â€“ Students Choice
Pick any Web 2.0 tool and show a user how to use a feature using a video capture.Â If you need ideas for a Web 2.0 tool you can use any of the topics discussed in MLA’s previous Web 2.0 CE http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?page_id=24.Â Share your video capture by clicking on the Send to Screencast.com button. Â Save your link as you will be asked to submit this with your course work.

Questions have been light so far and I was attributing this to Martin Luther King day and the inauguration. I tested the comments this morning and discovered that they were not being received. My apologizes if you have posted a comment and not been answered. Unfortunately any comments posted have gone out into cyberspace. I’ve made some adjustments and everything seems to be working now. Please let me know (bart@virginia.edu) if you have any problems. We do have to ‘approve’ comments to reduce spam so there will be a short lag in when you post and when you get a response.

Thank you for your patience and if you have a minute, let us know how things are going!

Hi, Bart,
Any chance the time frame for these (this one in particular) can be extended? I’m really interested in this topic, but it has been absolutely impossible for me this week.
Sincere thanks,
Kathryn

@Bart Ragon
Hi, am having a wonderful time with Jing. I’ve “produced” my first video but it belongs in the silent film era as I cannot get the microphone to work with Jing. I can do some highlight of text instead of my audio, but I think you may miss my salient points. Will that work for you? Thanks, Leslie

Hi Bart,
I can’t hear the audio when I play back the videos I create. Jing shows that my mic is on when I start my screencast. I have a stereo headset with mic attached, but it’s not a USB mic. Is that the problem? I’ve tried to follow the Screencast help information on audio troubleshooting and fiddled with the Audio settings on my control panel, so far with no luck. Any ideas?
Joy

That Jing or screencast is sooooo cool. Im going to do another one! I just found a microphone. The problem is can I figure out what I just did! This will be very useful for my classes. Hell I can cancel half my classes and just show these little clips! What a kick.

Yes, that is fine. We knew going in that there would be people without mics. I did just make this “How to test your mic’ in windows Jing capture for someone else. If you have time you could try to trouble shoot your mic.http://www.screencast.com/t/9zIiJkacCN

Let me start with the good news! We will leave all of the course materials up for at least a year so it will be available as a resource for some time to come.

However, we cannot provide CE credit beyond the dates listed for a few reason. The main reason being that if we extended the CE for a week, inevitably someone else would need 2 weeks based on their schedule and it gets hard to draw a line. I also want to be respectful of the Task Force members and MLA staff who are graciously taking time out of their work and personal lives to support and administer the course.

Having extreme difficulty with the video portion — Adobe Flash 10 does not want to play nicely with my PC — I keep down-loading it, then trying the video capture, only to be told I need it (yet again) — I don’t think I will be able to get the video capture portion done by the due date. The static capture worked just fine.
Oh well,

Second, if that doesn’t work can you log into http://screencast.com/ and see if your video is listed in your Jing folder. If it is click the share icon and send me the URL it provides. It may be that the capture is fine, but the playback is not working on your computer.

Let me know, I’d like to work with you on this so that you can receive credit.

If you still haven’t fixed your microphone problems, please read my blog (http://rachels101blog.blogspot.com/), wherein I relate my discovery of (drumroll, please), the MUTE button on the Jing toolbar! See http://screencast.com/t/lt3NYXlX Apparently my first video was silent because I didn’t notice that muting was on. However, I did still have audio problems (distorted sounds) that I was never able to fix.